Ignite is a mentor program
consisting of upperclassmen who
mentor Loy Norrix freshmen. The
mentors keep the freshmen on track
in school and help with their grades.
Next year’s Ignite mentors visited
KPS middle schools, Maple Street and
Milwood. The Ignite mentors talked
to all the eighth graders that are
going to be freshman next year. The
program is Spring Transitions and the
mentors trained for three hours.
Eighth grade students also visited
Loy Norrix on April 29th, May 7th, and
May 14th. The mentors presented a
lesson to the eighth graders on three
occasions.
Ignite is currently recruiting new
mentors for next year.

Key Club

The Loy Norrix Key Club has
successfully helped raise 15,000
dollars to support Pretty Lake
Vacation Camp’s annual Tag Day
event. The event would not have
been possible if it was not for
donations from the Key Club.
Pretty Lake Camp is thankful to
the Key Club and is now able to send
hundreds of kids to camp. Pretty Lake
brings kids from diverse backgrounds
and tough situations, and puts hope
in their eyes by providing a proactive
environment for kids to excel in.

Many Options Open for Next
Year’s Lunches
Julian Edwards
Feature Editor
News Editor

With the switch to trimesters
next year, the current three-lunch
schedule that Loy Norrix runs
on may not be viable anymore.
Changes to next year’s lunch
schedule will be implemented over
the summer to adapt to the new
70-minute class periods.
There are countless options
available for next year’s lunches,
although nothing has been ofﬁcially decided on yet. Keeping the
three-lunch set up that Loy Norrix
currently runs on is an option, but
that would mean lunches would be
moved forward by about half an
hour. This would put ﬁrst lunch at
10:01 in the morning as opposed
to starting at 10:39. With the high
percentage of Loy Norrix students
that have free and reduced lunch
(59 percent as of 2008, according
to Education.com), this creates a
problem for students who are not
always able to eat when they get
home. Having a later lunch would
lessen the gap between meals for
these students.
Also, having a three-lunch
schedule will keep second lunch in
the middle of third period, which
would separate the period into
two parts and disrupt the learning
of students. This happens with
second lunch now and can create
problems with test taking.
Having a split class period
deﬁnitely has its challenges.
“It changes your lesson plan,”
said economics teacher Jennifer

Upcoming Events

Hannah Corning
Public Relations

www.understandingrace.org

“[Racism] is not how you
look, it is about how people assign
meaning to how you look,” said
Robin D.G. Kelley, Professor of
American studies and ethnicity at
U.S.C
Racism has been a major
problem in the United States for
centuries. From Jim Crow laws
to separation in public places, the

Sophomore Clairece Schultes currently has third lunch. Schultes
admits that she dislikes the changes that may be made to the lunches
next year and that she thinks first lunch is too early.

noisy cafeteria and to hang out in
their own personalized area. There
is some concern about keeping the
courtyard clean, though.
“It’s probably going to start
looking like crap, because no one
is going to pick up their trash,”
said sophomore Quentin Bryant.
On the other hand, having the
courtyard open would give seniors
a sense of responsibility. “From
personal experience, with more
freedom comes more responsibility,” said Bryant.
Some people believe having
the senior courtyard open would be
a good change. “I think it’s a good
idea because it’s their last year and
they should have some extra privileges,” said sophomore Micaela
Van Buren.
Another solution for dealing
with overcrowding in the cafeteria

is to open up the back gym for
various sports and other activities.
This would be a great option for
other students that aren’t seniors,
to be able to spend time outside of
the cafeteria.
“They [the students] will be
happier. There will be more to do
at lunch,” said Van Buren.
Although many students have
expressed dislike over the options
given in a recent survey about the
lunches, it is important to realize
that nothing has been decided on
yet. Also, if any of these changes
take place, it won’t happen until
next year.
Students have shown concern that the changes will not actually go into effect. “I think they’re
good [the changes], if it’s actually
going to happen,” said junior Alison Goodacre.

U.S. has been on the road to stop
racism, beginning with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1860.
The United States has had
some of the most inspirational
speakers in the past who spoke
about racism and how it needs to
stop. Martin Luther King Jr. was
one of these inspirational speakers
who spoke about civil rights.
His most inspirational speech
is the ”I have a Dream” speech,
which told about how he had a
dream that everyone would be
equal, that people would be able
to walk hand in hand regardless of
skin color.
Rosa Parks was not known as
an inspirational speaker, but she
left behind some powerful words
when she spoke with her actions
and refused to give up her seat
on a bus. These are just some of
the people who helped kick-start

the civil rights movement against
unfair treatment due to race.
“Racism is how people view
each other. People think badly of
people who don’t look like them.
We have to get over it,” said Loy
Norrix English teacher Katherine
Williamson.
Williamson is an expert in
the race topic in Kalamazoo. Two
years ago Williamson took a class
at a race workshop to help prepare
teachers to talk about this October’s Race Exhibit.
Even though we had people
like Parks and King there were
also people like the leader of the
KKK. The Ku Klux Klan, is a
white organization that originated
in the early 1860’s, this organization tries to control African Americans.
This October the city of Kalamazoo will be hosting the Race

Project Exhibit, from the second of
October to January at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. This exhibit
will show everyday racism and
how it started.
There will also be artifacts,
photographs, multimedia presentations and much more about the
past and present racism, to give
eye opening lessons about history.
The project explains differences
or similarities among people and
reveals the reality or unreality of
race. The exhibit will also have a
wall of the history of racism in the
U.S. and how it has changed.
In high school teenagers are
especially judgmental in viewing
others. Race plays a big part in it
as well. “It [the race exhibit] is a
really powerful exhibit especially
for high school students,” said Williamson.

Loy Norrix Students Shine In ACT-SO Competition

MAY

Seniors...............................7-10

Renkowski.
“Although it’s a pain [second
lunch], it allows time to digest
information,” said Renkowski.
Another alternative for the
lunch schedule would be to throw
out second lunch and have Loy
Norrix operate on a two-lunch
schedule. This means ﬁrst lunch
will be starting at 10:01, regardless
of whether there is a two-lunch
or three-lunch schedule. Second
lunch would then start 45 minutes
after ﬁrst lunch ends, which would
give security ofﬁcers time to ﬁnd
students who are skipping and get
them back to class. The 45-minute break between lunches would
also give the lunch staff more time
to prepare the food and clean the
cafeteria.
A two-lunch schedule will
help students focus more during
third period, as it would not be
cut in half. It will also increase
learning time, since teachers will
not have to spend time retaking
attendance and getting students
refocused when they return from
lunch under a split class period.
Having a two-lunch schedule
does present a new set of problems, though. According to the
Fire Marshall, the capacity of the
cafeteria is 500 students, but there
are over 1,200 students enrolled at
Loy Norrix. A two-lunch schedule
would place roughly 600 students
in each lunch; well over the safety
capacity of the cafeteria.
One option for dealing with
this overcrowding is to open up
the senior courtyard. This would
allow seniors to get away from the

Race Exhibit Comes to Kalamazoo This October

Ecology Club

The Ecology Club is a group of
members cleaning
and gardening in the
courtyards. Jane Ryan
is the faculty advisor.
On Earth Day, the
Ecology Club cleans up the court
yards. Picking up empty cans, bottles,
and cigarette butts all around
the neighborhood helps to keep
these areas clean. Elementary and
Middle schools can be recruited to
help the Ecology Club clean up the
environment and plant gardens, so
they can grow.
The Ecology Club is changing the
whole community into a better place.
The community should care about
this planet as much as we care about
each other.

Volume 50 / Issue 5 / May 2010

BERTHA MCNEAL / GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER

Gold Finalist, Alexis Caple.

Afro-Academic Cultural
Technological and Scientiﬁc
Olympics, ACT-SO for short, is a
program that was founded in 1977
by author and journalist Vernon
Jarrett. The program is used to
improve academic and cultural
success in African American high
school students.
“ You compete against
yourself, and it gives you
experience to talk in front of
people,” said junior Dominique
Essix now in his third year of
ACT-SO. Essix competed and
placed in three competitions. He
won a bronze for his essay titled
“Post High School Education.” He
also received two silver metals for
Music Instrumental/Contemporary
and Oratory.
“Even when you are not a
winner you are still a winner,” said
Essix, who credits the program to
making him a better speaker and
person.

Essix was introduced to the
program his freshman year by
Darek Cobbs, a friend of Essix
and musician from Christian Life
center, who was already a part of
ACT-SO.
Alexis Caple, a freshman
at Loy Norrix High School was
one of the four gold medalists
this year. She won a gold medal
in ﬁlmmaking for her ﬁlm titled,
“Saying What’s on Your Mind.” It
is a ﬁlm about the feelings teens
keep bottled inside and the effects.
This is Caple’s ﬁrst year in
ACT-SO and she was recruited
at lunch. She had done some
ﬁlmmaking in the past but nothing
as big as the ACT-SO project this
year. Caple feels that doing this
ﬁlm for ACT-SO has made her a
better ﬁlmmaker.
“ It [winning a gold medal]
is good ‘cause I think I’m like
the youngest person to win
in [ﬁlmmaking] in like nine

years,”said Caple.
She is very happy that she
did ACT-SO because not only
did it help her become a better
ﬁlmmaker but she also made
new friends through the program.
Winning a gold medal qualiﬁed
Caple and fellow LN student
Ebony Gray a trip to the national
competition in Kansas City. The
national gold medalist will receive
two thousand dollars intended for
college and a laptop computer.
“Be committed and succeed,
achieve and proceeded,” that is the
lesson that Essix has learned from
the ACT-SO program. He went on
to say anyone who is even thinking
about joining this program really
should. It helps you grow as a
person and helps you understand
yourself as a person.